Good People
Marcus Sakey
Dutton, Aug 2008, $24.95
ISBN: 9780525950844
Struggling middle class Tom and Anna Reed are good solid citizens who love one another. Their dream is to have a child, but infertility makes it impossible without expensive help. They do not have the money for some of the alternatives and those they have tried like in-vitro have proven futile.
Helping them survive financially as they pinch pennies for their next fertility try is a reclusive tenant who pays monthly rent to them. When their hermit dies, the Reeds worry about how they will survive without his income coming in monthly. They enter their late lodger’s room to clean it out only to find four-hundred thousand dollars. Unable to resist what both feel is an easy windfall that no one will know about except themselves, this will allow them to attempt again to fulfill their dream of a child. However, neither understands that their deceased boarder left behind some irate Windy City associates who believe the ill-gotten loot belongs to them; these dangerous thugs do not mind the use of force including breaking limbs or even murder and their sights are set on the Reeds.
This exciting thriller uses a typical American suburban family trying to fulfill their dream that places them in extreme danger from deadly mobsters who believe their ill-gotten loot belongs to them as the late tenant double-crossed them. Where else would a mobster hide than in the burbs; making for quite a contrast between middle class American and the mob will sort of remind readers of the haunting contrasting final scene of the Cagney film Public Enemy. Readers will appreciate this strong thriller as the American dream turns nightmarish when the Reeds become avaricious in achieving their personal quest as Marcus Sakey asks his audience would you ethically turn in $400,000 that you believe no one knows you found.
Harriet Klausner
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Death by Cashmere-Sally Goldenbaum
Death by Cashmere
Sally Goldenbaum
Obsidian, Aug 2008, $21.95
ISBN: 9780451224712
Realizing she was not cut out to be a lawyer, Izzy Chambers quits her job to open up a knitting shop in Sea Harbor, Massachusetts where she spent summers as a child. Her Aunt Nell lives there and is one of her biggest supporters while some other ladies like retiree Birdie and lobster fisherwoman Cass are her best customers. They all bond and meet once a week as the Seaside Knitters.
Angelina Archer lives in an apartment above Izzy’s store. She is working on a project for the local museum on quarries and land deeds. One night she goes on a date with Cass’s brother and ditches him; a public argument ensues with Tony Framingham, son of the town’s matriarch. The next day Angelina is found dead in the nearby breakwater. Most people prefer to assume a tragic accident occurred, but an autopsy revealed her blood contained a drug that paralyzed her; making it impossible for Angelina to swim to safety. The Seaside Knitters sisterhood investigates finding dirty dark secrets long buried by the paragons of a Cape Cod town.
This is a character driven amateur sleuth starring four likable female friends who work the homicide one stitch at a time. The quartet each deals separately with a segment of the murder pattern until they seamlessly sew their respective puzzle pieces together. However though this is a refreshing outlook it also takes away from the intensity of solving the case as more than half the book is done before the knitters merge their clues. Mindful of Monica Ferris’ Minnesota Crewel World and Maggie Sefton’s Colorado House of Lambspun; fans will enjoy DEATH BY CASHMERE.
Harriet Klausner
Sally Goldenbaum
Obsidian, Aug 2008, $21.95
ISBN: 9780451224712
Realizing she was not cut out to be a lawyer, Izzy Chambers quits her job to open up a knitting shop in Sea Harbor, Massachusetts where she spent summers as a child. Her Aunt Nell lives there and is one of her biggest supporters while some other ladies like retiree Birdie and lobster fisherwoman Cass are her best customers. They all bond and meet once a week as the Seaside Knitters.
Angelina Archer lives in an apartment above Izzy’s store. She is working on a project for the local museum on quarries and land deeds. One night she goes on a date with Cass’s brother and ditches him; a public argument ensues with Tony Framingham, son of the town’s matriarch. The next day Angelina is found dead in the nearby breakwater. Most people prefer to assume a tragic accident occurred, but an autopsy revealed her blood contained a drug that paralyzed her; making it impossible for Angelina to swim to safety. The Seaside Knitters sisterhood investigates finding dirty dark secrets long buried by the paragons of a Cape Cod town.
This is a character driven amateur sleuth starring four likable female friends who work the homicide one stitch at a time. The quartet each deals separately with a segment of the murder pattern until they seamlessly sew their respective puzzle pieces together. However though this is a refreshing outlook it also takes away from the intensity of solving the case as more than half the book is done before the knitters merge their clues. Mindful of Monica Ferris’ Minnesota Crewel World and Maggie Sefton’s Colorado House of Lambspun; fans will enjoy DEATH BY CASHMERE.
Harriet Klausner
Monday, June 2, 2008
Fractured-Karin Slaughter
Fractured
Karin Slaughter
Delacorte, Aug 2008, $25.00
ISBN: 0385341954
Affluent attorney Abigail Campano returns to her mansion in Atlanta's upscale Ansley Park section only to see a dead girl lying on the upstairs hallway. Without getting a close look, a stunned Abigail assumes the victim is her teenage daughter Emma. The apparent killer had not yet left the premise and the outraged Abby kills him. Georgia Bureau of Investigation Agent Will Trent investigates along with Atlanta police Detective Faith Mitchell. The father Paul arrives filled with belligerence and bluster. Paul looks at the body and notices the lack of a birthmark; he insists the corpse of the teen is not his daughter; he and Abigail feel guilt and relief as Emma's friend Kayla Alexander lies dead on the floor.
Will concludes that besides the obvious murder, someone kidnapped Emma. His fear is that they are too late to save the life of the seventeen year old girl but he and Faith remain determined to try; while the case is already confusing with the homicide and the death of the alleged killer by the lioness in her home, neither expected the twists that the investigation takes. Still both cops fear they are too late.
Police procedural fans need to set aside time for this one sitting 400-page thriller as the audience will keep on adding one more exciting chapter after another to read. The two cops Will and Faith are a wonderful pairing as both are dedicated, but flawed; those personal defects augment a strong thriller. Filled with twists, FRACTURED will leave Karin Slaughter fans clamoring for the next GBI installment (see TRIPTYCH for the previous one).
Harriet Klausner
Karin Slaughter
Delacorte, Aug 2008, $25.00
ISBN: 0385341954
Affluent attorney Abigail Campano returns to her mansion in Atlanta's upscale Ansley Park section only to see a dead girl lying on the upstairs hallway. Without getting a close look, a stunned Abigail assumes the victim is her teenage daughter Emma. The apparent killer had not yet left the premise and the outraged Abby kills him. Georgia Bureau of Investigation Agent Will Trent investigates along with Atlanta police Detective Faith Mitchell. The father Paul arrives filled with belligerence and bluster. Paul looks at the body and notices the lack of a birthmark; he insists the corpse of the teen is not his daughter; he and Abigail feel guilt and relief as Emma's friend Kayla Alexander lies dead on the floor.
Will concludes that besides the obvious murder, someone kidnapped Emma. His fear is that they are too late to save the life of the seventeen year old girl but he and Faith remain determined to try; while the case is already confusing with the homicide and the death of the alleged killer by the lioness in her home, neither expected the twists that the investigation takes. Still both cops fear they are too late.
Police procedural fans need to set aside time for this one sitting 400-page thriller as the audience will keep on adding one more exciting chapter after another to read. The two cops Will and Faith are a wonderful pairing as both are dedicated, but flawed; those personal defects augment a strong thriller. Filled with twists, FRACTURED will leave Karin Slaughter fans clamoring for the next GBI installment (see TRIPTYCH for the previous one).
Harriet Klausner
Scone Cold Dead-Kaitlyn Dunnett
Scone Cold Dead
Kaitlyn Dunnett
Kensington, Aug 2008, $22.00
ISBN: 9780758216458
Liss MacCrimmon had to retire at the age of twenty-seven from Strathspey, a company of Scottish dancers that she was part of for years. She returned to her hometown of Moosetookalook, Maine where she co-owns with her aunt the Moosetookalook Scottish Emporium. She is very excited as her formers Dance Company is coming to town to perform at the student center of the University of Maine at Fallstown.
At a reception after a show, she is glad to see her old and trusted friends, but also sad as she misses performing especially on the road. Troupe manager Victor Owens is eating a special cocktail scone when he keels over and dies. Apparently the scone contained mushrooms, which he was allergic to. It seems obvious that someone murdered him. Liss questions each dancer individually and realizes that the victim was considered surly, sarcastic and abusive; those were his positive traits. He had plenty of people angry with his overall meanness and his ability to publicly humiliate his performers. When the lead detective realizes the troupe is hiding things, he asks Liss to assist him, but he only intended for her to help with the questioning not the dangerous sleuthing.
Kaitlyn Dunnett has written a character driven regional cozy that provides the audience with an interesting look at a traveling dance troupe. Sub-genre fans will appreciate SCONE COLD DEAD as the story line contains enough suspense to keep the reader alert (and avoiding mushrooms) yet a strong local and visiting cast makes for a delightful read. Although why a professional would ask an amateur to help on a homicide investigation even if he does not understand the vernacular or the reticence of the dancers seems a stretch; this technique enables the audience to see behind the scenes of the troupe. Filled with plenty of local characters also, perhaps Ms. Dunnett might consider a side series starring the townsfolk in their own tales.
Harriet Klausner
Kaitlyn Dunnett
Kensington, Aug 2008, $22.00
ISBN: 9780758216458
Liss MacCrimmon had to retire at the age of twenty-seven from Strathspey, a company of Scottish dancers that she was part of for years. She returned to her hometown of Moosetookalook, Maine where she co-owns with her aunt the Moosetookalook Scottish Emporium. She is very excited as her formers Dance Company is coming to town to perform at the student center of the University of Maine at Fallstown.
At a reception after a show, she is glad to see her old and trusted friends, but also sad as she misses performing especially on the road. Troupe manager Victor Owens is eating a special cocktail scone when he keels over and dies. Apparently the scone contained mushrooms, which he was allergic to. It seems obvious that someone murdered him. Liss questions each dancer individually and realizes that the victim was considered surly, sarcastic and abusive; those were his positive traits. He had plenty of people angry with his overall meanness and his ability to publicly humiliate his performers. When the lead detective realizes the troupe is hiding things, he asks Liss to assist him, but he only intended for her to help with the questioning not the dangerous sleuthing.
Kaitlyn Dunnett has written a character driven regional cozy that provides the audience with an interesting look at a traveling dance troupe. Sub-genre fans will appreciate SCONE COLD DEAD as the story line contains enough suspense to keep the reader alert (and avoiding mushrooms) yet a strong local and visiting cast makes for a delightful read. Although why a professional would ask an amateur to help on a homicide investigation even if he does not understand the vernacular or the reticence of the dancers seems a stretch; this technique enables the audience to see behind the scenes of the troupe. Filled with plenty of local characters also, perhaps Ms. Dunnett might consider a side series starring the townsfolk in their own tales.
Harriet Klausner
Dead Over Heels-Charlaine Harris
Dead Over Heels
Charlaine Harris
Berkley, Aug 2008, $7.99
ISBN: 9780425223031
In Lawrenceton, Georgia strange, sometimes dangerous things occur around Aurora “Roe” Teagarden, but nothing seems to directly happen to her. As Roe and her bodyguard Angel are in her garden, suddenly a body falls from the sky leaving a deep imprint on her lawn. The police arrive at the landing site and turn the body over only to find it is one of them, Detective Sergeant Jack Burns.
Luckily for the librarian not the victim, Roe has witnesses who saw her in plain sight when the corpse landed near her. Jack had disliked and distrusted Roe although she never knew why. She soon gets calls with the other person hanging up on her without a word and someone places a pink ribbon around the neck of her cat. Angel and Roe get into a fight with a librarian aide; soon after that woman is assaulted by a pipe and hospitalized. Another cop is in danger; her former lover Arthur Smith with both attending a dinner accompanied by their current significant others. Roe tries to put together the puzzle pieces based on the assumption that Angel is the object of an obsessed person, but feels she must determine the coherent picture before someone else is hurt or dead.
Charlaine Harris, renowned for her Stackhouse urban fantasies and her Harper Connelly mysteries, provides an engaging regional amateur sleuth cozy that is actually a reprint of a mid 1990s tale. The Teagarden mysteries are fun to read as they showcase the talented author’s earlier works. DEAD OVER HEELS is a fine entry as there seems to be no rationale reason from the incidents. Though not the best Teagarden whodunit, as the suspense never fully leaves the ground (pun intended), fans of the series will appreciate the heroine’s efforts to uncover the truth and her inner thoughts re her spouse and her bodyguard.
Harriet Klausner
Charlaine Harris
Berkley, Aug 2008, $7.99
ISBN: 9780425223031
In Lawrenceton, Georgia strange, sometimes dangerous things occur around Aurora “Roe” Teagarden, but nothing seems to directly happen to her. As Roe and her bodyguard Angel are in her garden, suddenly a body falls from the sky leaving a deep imprint on her lawn. The police arrive at the landing site and turn the body over only to find it is one of them, Detective Sergeant Jack Burns.
Luckily for the librarian not the victim, Roe has witnesses who saw her in plain sight when the corpse landed near her. Jack had disliked and distrusted Roe although she never knew why. She soon gets calls with the other person hanging up on her without a word and someone places a pink ribbon around the neck of her cat. Angel and Roe get into a fight with a librarian aide; soon after that woman is assaulted by a pipe and hospitalized. Another cop is in danger; her former lover Arthur Smith with both attending a dinner accompanied by their current significant others. Roe tries to put together the puzzle pieces based on the assumption that Angel is the object of an obsessed person, but feels she must determine the coherent picture before someone else is hurt or dead.
Charlaine Harris, renowned for her Stackhouse urban fantasies and her Harper Connelly mysteries, provides an engaging regional amateur sleuth cozy that is actually a reprint of a mid 1990s tale. The Teagarden mysteries are fun to read as they showcase the talented author’s earlier works. DEAD OVER HEELS is a fine entry as there seems to be no rationale reason from the incidents. Though not the best Teagarden whodunit, as the suspense never fully leaves the ground (pun intended), fans of the series will appreciate the heroine’s efforts to uncover the truth and her inner thoughts re her spouse and her bodyguard.
Harriet Klausner
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Jack with a Twist-Brenda Janowitz
Jack with a Twist
Brenda Janowitz
Red Dress, Jul 2008, $13.95
ISBN: 9780373895557
Yesterday the world looked great to Manhattan lawyer Brooke Miller. She and her fiancé following their Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup romance were planning a wedding and her law firm has given her the first major case for her to represent in court.
Today the world is bleak as the opposing lawyer in court is Jack; not any Jack, but the Jack she knows as fiancé. Worse from the onset he makes it clear his client comes before his future wife at least in court. Jack pulls tricks, which Brooke trumps with her own dirty tricks, which Jack trumps in turn. Their families take obvious sides in a New York version of the Hatfields and McCoys; as their legal dispute spills into the streets via the media. Each wonders whether the other’s courtroom antics will show up in the bedroom; as the engagement becomes shaky.
This entertaining often amusing chick lit legal thriller is fun to follow as Jack and Brooke take turns in their courtroom cold war that shows signs of heating up in the bedroom. The story line is fast-paced; mostly seen through the heroine’s perspective as she acts and reacts to her fiancé’s stunts with ruses of her own. Offbeat, JACK WITH A TWIST is a humorous contemporary romance in which Brooke (and to a lesser degree Jack) must decide how far she goes before she has gone too far.
Harriet Klausner
Brenda Janowitz
Red Dress, Jul 2008, $13.95
ISBN: 9780373895557
Yesterday the world looked great to Manhattan lawyer Brooke Miller. She and her fiancé following their Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup romance were planning a wedding and her law firm has given her the first major case for her to represent in court.
Today the world is bleak as the opposing lawyer in court is Jack; not any Jack, but the Jack she knows as fiancé. Worse from the onset he makes it clear his client comes before his future wife at least in court. Jack pulls tricks, which Brooke trumps with her own dirty tricks, which Jack trumps in turn. Their families take obvious sides in a New York version of the Hatfields and McCoys; as their legal dispute spills into the streets via the media. Each wonders whether the other’s courtroom antics will show up in the bedroom; as the engagement becomes shaky.
This entertaining often amusing chick lit legal thriller is fun to follow as Jack and Brooke take turns in their courtroom cold war that shows signs of heating up in the bedroom. The story line is fast-paced; mostly seen through the heroine’s perspective as she acts and reacts to her fiancé’s stunts with ruses of her own. Offbeat, JACK WITH A TWIST is a humorous contemporary romance in which Brooke (and to a lesser degree Jack) must decide how far she goes before she has gone too far.
Harriet Klausner
Ambush-Paul Carson
Ambush
Paul Carson
St. Martin’s, Jun 2008, $25.95
ISBN: 0312367112
Dr. Scott Nolan and his wife Laura leave America for him to practice medicine Dublin. They are a loving couple and look forward to a long life together. Everything collapses when Laura is killed during an errant shot, which targeted Ireland's anti-drug Justice Minister, Harry Power.
Serene before he became a widower, an angry grieving Scott wants vengeance against the chief assassin. His also upset brother-in-law, Irish Police Officer Mark Higgins agrees to help him uncover the identity of the chief plotter who arranged the murder of an innocent out of avarice. Senior police officer, Commissioner Peter Cunningham and Power agree to blink while Nolan and Higgins abduct drug dealers so that the former can use his medical skills to extract information leading to the kingpin.
This is an exciting thriller that will remind readers of Clancy’s Patriot Game. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action from the moment the innocent Laura is gunned down and never slows down until a final confrontation with a major twist on the way to the altercation. Although a stretch wider than the Blarney Stone, this is a fun thriller in which the end justifies the mean.
Harriet Klausner
Paul Carson
St. Martin’s, Jun 2008, $25.95
ISBN: 0312367112
Dr. Scott Nolan and his wife Laura leave America for him to practice medicine Dublin. They are a loving couple and look forward to a long life together. Everything collapses when Laura is killed during an errant shot, which targeted Ireland's anti-drug Justice Minister, Harry Power.
Serene before he became a widower, an angry grieving Scott wants vengeance against the chief assassin. His also upset brother-in-law, Irish Police Officer Mark Higgins agrees to help him uncover the identity of the chief plotter who arranged the murder of an innocent out of avarice. Senior police officer, Commissioner Peter Cunningham and Power agree to blink while Nolan and Higgins abduct drug dealers so that the former can use his medical skills to extract information leading to the kingpin.
This is an exciting thriller that will remind readers of Clancy’s Patriot Game. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action from the moment the innocent Laura is gunned down and never slows down until a final confrontation with a major twist on the way to the altercation. Although a stretch wider than the Blarney Stone, this is a fun thriller in which the end justifies the mean.
Harriet Klausner
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